The leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide (ONYCW) has warned the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against choosing a 2023 Presidential candidate outside the Southeast.
This is as the group claimed that the PDP was making what it described as subterranean diabolical plans to retain power in the north in 2023.
Ohanaeze Youth leadership in a press release by its President-General, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, and Secretary-General Mazi Okwu Nnabuike also warned any Igbo politician from accepting to become the vice-presidential candidate of the PDP, stressing that the 2023 Igbo Presidency candidate (IPP) is non-negotiable.
According to the Igbo Youth Group, despite the fact that the people of the southeast have massively voted for the PDP since 1999, it appears that the PDP regards the Igbos as cows that must not only be milked but used to death.
“The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide is irrevocably committed to the advancement of the Igbo nation. In the struggle to protect, promote, and prosper the life and livelihood of the average Igbo man, the council will speak with courage and act with wisdom.
“The OYC is committed to the idea that the Igbo man would thrive best in a restructured Federal Republic of Nigeria. What the Igbo man seeks is not a helping hand. The Igbo man demands a level playing field.
“The Igbo man in Ihiala or Zungeru or Potiskum has invested his faith in Nigeria. He wants from Nigeria the sense of belonging of first son—a shared sense of belonging with the Fulani and the Yoruba. He wants a platform for the maximization of his God-given potentials.
“While the OYC is pushing fiercely for devolution of power to the regions and resource control, the Council will keep its eyes on 2023. It is not because an Igbo presidency will solve all that bedevils the Igbo. But an Igbo presidency will assuage and comfort will offer that sense of belonging and will pursue devolution of powers and industrialization.
“While watching the events leading up to 2023, the OYC has observed some troubling developments.
“Igbos have voted massively for the PDP since 1999. But it appears that the PDP regards the Igbos as cows that must be milked, used to death. The PDP is making subterranean diabolical plans to retain power in the north in 2023.
“Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youths Council Worldwide wishes to make it abundantly clear. The PDP must not insult the intelligence of the Igbo.
“If the PDP thinks the Igbo will wait till 2031 before it gets a chance at the presidential ticket of the party then the PDP isn’t just treacherous, it is delusional. Perhaps the PDP doesn’t need Igbo votes.
“The youths of Igbo land will not sit astride and watch the PDP field a candidate from the north and come to Igbo land to hoodwink people with sweetened gibberish.
“If the PDP tramples on equity and commonsense, and opts for a northern candidate in 2023, then the PDP should forget about coming to Igbo land to seek votes in the 2023 presidential elections.
“The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide has advice for Igbo politicians. The Council has noticed some of them running around like castrated squirrels. Do not accept a vice-presidential ticket from anybody.
“No Igbo politician should accept a vice-presidential ticket from any party. Any Igbo man or woman who grovels to a vice-presidential ticket should consider political social distancing from Igbo land,” the statement read.

By Sunny Nwankwo